Microsoft Office has become a standard for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations, because it’s relatively easy to use and contains lots of customization options. If you’ve been holding out on buying it, the company is offering it for free to iPad users. While you’ll still have to pay if you want all of the suite’s features, the free versions are not stripped down and allow you to create and edit documents, change fonts, and create tables. Here are some of the limitations in the freebies:
- Word. Although you can view landscape documents, you can only create or edit documents in portrait mode. Track Changes automatically stay on for existing documents and stay off for new documents. You can change text options like font size and preset colors. But you can’t use custom colors, Word Art or Text Styles.
- Excel. Aside from the previously mentioned Word restrictions, the free version does not allow changes to the layout or style of Pivot Tables, although you can still refresh them and pivot data. No mobile version of Office, even the paid one, can create these tables.
- PowerPoint. This application also contains all the restrictions of Word and Excel. However, many advanced tools are only for the paid version including Presenter View, which lets you view your slides and notes on your computer while the presentation appears on another display for the audience. However, you can still display a full presentation on one monitor.
You never know when Microsoft might change its mind in offering the freebies, so now would be an excellent time to download the suite and try it. You can always upgrade to the paid version if you want all the features.
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